
340 

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AN ADDRESS 



ON THE 



LIFE, CHIEMTER AND PUBLIC SERVICES 



OF 



HENRY CLAY, 



Delivered on the day of August, AD. 1852, 



AT WELDON, NORTH CAROLINA, 



UPON INVITATION, 



BY B, F. MOORE, ESQ. 



RALEIGH: 

PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF TBI "SOUrHEEN WEEKLY POST." 

1853. 



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ire 









ADDRESS. 



Fellow-citizens : 

Whenever a man ascends in the great affairs of nations 
far beyond the level of his fellow me a, and for a loner while 
maintains, by the rarest attributes of greatness, the high emi- 
nence, solitary and unapproachable, (lie idea insensibly Bteals 
into our minds, that Deity has withdrawn him from the lot of 
mankind and lent him a spark of his own eternity. When 
such a man dies, the first act of the soul is to doubt the re- 
ality, and the next to exclaim, in the language of the eloquent 
Masillon, as he gazed <>n the lifeless corpse of Louis the Great : 
" There is none great but God." 

More than eight years ago, by the honored invitation of a 
great party, I stood near this spot to welcome their head and 
leader to the hospitalities of the State. Noir, J stand here by 
the honored invitation of both the great parties, to com- 
memorate the life and character and public services of the 
same eminent man. He was then the living and formidable 
representative^!" a great and active political [tarty ; he is now 
the quiet sleeper of the grave, gathered to his fathers in the 
ripeness of age, and leaving behind him a name of renown to 
which the united hearts of his countrymen bring their tribute 
of sorrow and affection, their garlands and their crowns. 
The type of his being is set for history, and mine is but the 
task to rehearse its page. 

Forty years ago, Henry (lav bore a name of distinction 
which, even then, had twined itself with the annals of his 
country. It was a name, not bestowed by position, nor con- 
ferred by birth, but gained by the labor of a toilsome ascent ; 
for he was born at the very foot of the lofty eminence on 



which he stood at the close of his life. I know, my country- 
men it is not that you are ignorant, either of the humble and 
obscure years of his youth, or of the distinguished career of 
bis manhood, that 1 am requested to-day U> speak of the man ; 
but that you may have an opportunity, with joint hearts, to 
hear again the record of his patriotism, to bear him your 
united evidence of his worth, and to pour out, with united 
hearts, vour gratitude to a Jong life of untiring devotion to 
his country. You come to approve yourselves worthy of be- 
inrr bis fellow-countrvmen, and in this, though we do but our 
duty, we honor ourselves no less than we honor the dead. 

Henry Clay was born in the county of Hanover, in the 
State of Virginia, on the 12th day of April, 1777. In the 
fourth year of his age, he became an orphan, by the death of 
his father, who was a Baptist clergyman of respectable abili- 
ty and distinguisned for his high integrity. He was one ot 
seven children, all of whom, wilh their mother, bad but pov- 
erty b>r their portion, and were destined, of course, to a com- 
mon toil for their daily bread. In this lowly station he ob- 
tained, at an humble country school, the prime rudiments of 
education. Living for some time as a mei chant's clerk in 
Richmond, he was transferred, at the age of fifteen, into the 
office of a chancery clerk— then became amanuensis to Chan- 
cellor Wythe, and, finally, on the invitation of Gov. Brooke, 
he completed, under the instruction and hospitable root of 
that most worthy gentleman, -his legal preparation for the 
bar. At the age'of twenty, having obtained license in Vir- 
ginia to practice his profession, he removed, in 1797, to the 
small village of Lexington, Kentucky. During the period he 
was in the chancery office, and from thence to his removal 
to the West, he was diligently engaged under the occasional 
instruction of the Chancelor and Gov. Brooke in supplying his 
defective education ; and he applied himself with great assi- 
duity and success, as is seen by his subsequent life. In his 
new home he lingered but for a moment at the threshold 
of business, and when he entered on his career, his ascent 
was rapid and dazzling beyond comparison, in that region 
even whrre the public witnessed so many brilliant displays 
from' the able lawyers who daily crowded into the inviting 

Mr. Clay was now in a fair field for the exhibition of his 
talents, the bar opened to him causes of deep concern, to 
be determined on the abstruse principles of law— causes oi 



intense interest, involving the life of the client— and before 
him and around him opened and lay all that field for popular 
eloquence which the public affairs of a republican people 
never fail to present. The action, too, of the Federal Gov- 
ernment in the stormy peiiod of 1798, invited an active' par- 
ticipation in the discussion of the times; and, from 171)7 to 
1803, Henry Clay, young as he was, was the favorite popular 
orator on the great questions, both State .and Federal, al- 
though not till the latter year, for the first time, was he a 
member of the Legislature. In this public trust he continued 
till 1806, when the executive of Kentucky appointed him to 
the Senate to fill an unexpired term of shori duration ; but 
brief as was the term of service in that truly august body, 
his capacity for business became well established, and he laid, 
even then, the foundation of a national renown for a com- 
manding eloquence. From the year 1807 to 1810 he was a 
leading member of the Kentucky Legislature and a warm 
and principal advocate of the measures of the national ad- 
ministration, which were adopted as retaliatory of British 
aggressions. In this year (1810,) he was again appointed to 
an unexpired term of two years in the national Senate. 
iJuxing that time, he took upon himself the defence of Presi- 
dent Madison's administration, and, against an extraordi- 
narily able and united array of distinguished men, he won for 
himself a distinction still higher ; and when the term was ex- 
pired, his name was not only among the first of the great 
men of America, but was ascending with every new exhibi- 
tion of his talents and eloquence. 

In November, 1811, he took his seat in the House of Re- 
presentatives, and on the first day of the session, although lor 
the first time a member of that body, he was elected its 
speaker. The nation was then in a btate of feverish agita- 
tion concerning our relations with the belligerents of Europe. 
With abundant cause of war, which had long existed and 
was constantly recurring, against both the great leaders of 
the nations of Europe, which France and England divided 
and embattled in hostile alliance, the straggle arose with 
us, and a fierce one it was, whether we should strike at all, 
and, it we struck, whether we should strike our ancient ene- 
my, or our ancient friend. Policy and the feelings of the 
times selected England for the foeman of our arms. 

There never was a time, since the peace of 1781, when a 
war had become so absolutely necessary to the preservation 
of the national character from abject humility and deep self- 



abasement. In the bloody conflicts of Europe for the ten 
years preceding we had reaped the richest harvests, as we 
both grew the bread and transported it, and, along with ir, 
the numerous other wants of war, for a world in arms. 

The skittish fear of a public debt — an apprehension thai 
we might endanger the consolidation of the recently formed 
union, and a doubt, that our undisciplined yeomen might not 
sustain the national character in a conflict in arms with 
trained veterans of protracted wars — repressed the popular 
ardor for revenge. A spirit of tameness had come drowsily 
over the public counsels, which seemed to have surrendered, 
for the moment, the honor of the nation to whatever interest 
might be the ascendant of the hour ; and under the influence 
of the vast gains gathered by our citizens, and the prospect 
of still greater, which lay before them, the national character 
was in danger of falling into the ignoble guardianship of an 
avarice, pampered by peace and stimulated by repeated sub- 
mission. 

It was at the moment when Mr. Clay first entered the 
popular branch of Congress, that the mild and amiable and 
just Madison acknowledged that a crisis was at hand, which 
involved the safety and honor of the people and the govern- 
ment, and demanded the atonement of blood. As, in the 
hands of the speaker, lay the appointment of^the committees, 
through whom the administration was to be both reflected 
and defended, the elevation of Mr. Clay to that post, over 
the old and the experienced — over such men as Lowndes and 
Calhoun, at such a critical time in public affairs — was a high 
compliment indeed ; but then justified by the judgment of 
the past, and now, by the history of the future of that day. 
The elevation of Mr. Clay, with his courageous heart, and 
lofty national spirit, which he breathed in his public speech- 
es, conjointly with the presidential recommendation to aug- 
ment the army and navy, announced the near approach of 
hostilities with that nation with whom, of all others on earth, 
a struggle in arms was most likely to try the depth of our 
purse, and the constancy of our courage. 

Admitted to be, as England was, the unquestioned mis- 
tress of the seas, the counsel was strong and plausible, in- 
deed, that every thing which she could (ire at on the ocean, 
should be withdrawn from that element. In a speech, re- 
markable for its calmness of courage, and thorough acquain- 
tance with the resources and bravery of the country, whieh 
was delivered in January preceding the war, he said : "1 am 



far from surveying the vast maritime of Great Britain with 
the despond.ng eye with which other gentlemen behold it 
1 cannot allow myself to be discouraged at the prospect of 
even her thousand stops. The country only requires reso- 
Jution and a proper exertion of its immense resources, to 
command respect and to vindicate every essential right " 

1 he nation yet paused before rushing into a contest with 
the Leviathan of the deep-paused in the hope of awaking 
in British counsels the slumbering angel of peace— but 
paused in vain. In April, 1812, an embargo was laid, with 
the avowed purpose to follow it in a suitable, but short time 
with a manifesto of war. On that occasion Mr. Clay spoke 
to his countrymen in the same language of encouragement. 
I approve of it, said he, « because it is to be viewed as a 
direct precursor to war " And when he had depicted the 
msults and injuries which we had sustained, he said : " I am 
not at all alarmed at the want of preparation; there is no 
terror in the war, except what arises from its novelty As 
an American and member of the House, I feel proud that 
the executive has recommended the measure." 

In June war was declared. Of the many causes of war, 
Mr. Clay always regarded that the most serious, of impress- 
ing our seamen; who were sometimes seized for this purpose 
on our own vessels, under pretence that they were subjects 
of the crown In January, 1813, on a proposition to increase 
the army, he delivered an oration, which, for its timely effect 
in arousing the nation to a proper sense of its wrongs, and as 
- a lasting monument of the power of argument and impas- 
sioned eloquence over the hearts of men, had no equal dur- 
ing the war "If," said he, "Great Britain desires a mark 
by which she can know her own subjects, let her aive them 
an ear-mark. The colors that float from the mast-head 
should be the credentials of our seamen." " We are told 
that England is a proud and lofty nation, which, disdaining 
to wait ior danger, meets it half way. Haughty as she is & 
we once triumphed over her, and, if we do not listen to the 
counsels of timidity and despair, we shall again prevail In 
such a cause, with the aid of Providence, we must come out 
crowned with success ; but if we fail, let us fail like men 
lash ourselves to our gallant tars, and expire together in one 
common struggle, fighting for FREE TRADE AND SEA- 
MEN'S RIGHTS." 

On the assembling of Congress in May, 1813 Mr. Clay 
was again placed in the chair of the speaker. The fortune 



8 

of war, which in the beginning had deserted our standard, 
had now returned to bless our arms, and both ocean and 
land bore aloft, and in triumph the banner of our country. 

A prospect of peace now shone out on the troubled clouds 
of strife, and the government was as ready to vindicate its 
character for mercy, as it had been, its claims for justice. 
Mr. Clay was appointed on the responsible commission to 
adjust the matters of complaint, and terminate the national 
dispute. Since the treaty of peace that followed the war of 
the Revolution, there has not been a negotiation more diffi- 
cult or complicated. Mr. Clay bore in it a primary part, and 
displayed throughout its tedious details, masterly tact, and 
that marked decision in action, which, more than any other 
man, he could happily unite with proper concessions. 

The treaty of Ghent, by high authority in England, was 
an American triumph. 

The close of the wu- of 1812 may be justly regarded as 
finishing the first chapter of the national public life of Henry 
Clay. It fills a period of five years, and left him in the 
thirty-eighth year of his age, renowned for wisdom as a 
statesman, and for unrivalled eloquence as an orator. The 
splei did success of his country, led by his counsels and his 
energy, had subdued his opponents, and he stood the wonder 
of the times, and the idol of his countrymen. The voice 
which had charmed away the fears of the nation, and com- 
mitted it to the hazards of war, then regarded by many as 
the voice of the syren enticing her deluded captives to 
death, was now remembered as the lofty tones of an inspired 
patriotism, lending courage to the timid, resolution to the 
wavering, and ardor and confidence to all. What a proud 
moment was this for him, who, in the most difficult and try- 
ing hour of his country, had climbed the lofty eminence of 
fame, and without a crime to remember on the wayside, 
could. look back along his ascending footpath into the vale 
below, where, a few years before, he had stood the indigent 
orphan, hid from the world by obscurity and poverty. And 
what a proud moment, too, for that country whose institu- 
tions had cheered him as he arose, and, for every honor 
which she bestowed, had received back the bright blessings 
of a vindicated flag, of peace, prosperity, and national re- 
nown. 

The cup of ordinary fame had now been full, but that of 
Mr. Clay had received but a drop of its destined portion. 
The establishment of peace removed all impediment to 



the forward march of the country, and opened wide the 
doors for every pursuit which enterpiise might venture to 
enter. But the scene around us was changed indeed. 

During the ten years preceding our manifesto of hostili- 
ties, the continent of Europe, her islands and her oceans, 
had been troubled and darkened with the storms of war. 
The few respites in the drama of blood were but the pauses 
of a tempest too furious to last long, without renewing the 
energy of its violence. But ive were in the midst of sun- 
shine. Withdrawn as they were from the arts of peace to 
swell the array of war, or supply the waste of its carnage, 
they left want at home, and created famine wherever they 
marched. At the moment we put on the armor of battle, we 
were the growers or carriers of the bread and comforts of 
more men in arms, than, at one time, had ever been mar- 
shalled. on earth. 

But when peace returned to our doors again, the clangor 
of arms had become also hushed over Europe, and her mil- 
lions of fighting men had returned to their homes, and re- 
sumed the arts of industry in the field and in the workshop. 
Such was the mighty change on the face of things. That it 
was to be attended with great results — results as lasting as 
might be the cause of the change — was foreseen by the most 
eminent men of the time. 

During the war, and for several years before, the scarcity 
of manufactured articles had stimulated into employment, in 
the fabrication of the comforts of life before supplied by the 
old world, many millions of capital. During hostilities they 
had been, except what had been smuggled from England, our 
sole reliance for clothing and munitions of war. 

To such an extent were our citizens deprived, amid 
the suspension of commerce, of the usual comforts of living, 
that many were made advocates of peace long before we 
had attained the objects of war. Without manufactures of 
her own, it was evident that the nation must ever be depen- 
dent on commerce to letch the articles needed, and on a for- 
eign demand for the productions of the soil as the means of 
their payment, in war the commerce would be cut off, or 
greatly restricted ; and, at all times, the demand for the pro- 
ductions of the soil would be uncertain and fluctuating. The 
infancy of the manufactures already established, was too 
tender for self-sustentation. Without the protecting hand of 
government, it was admitted that they could not survive the 
shock of a long continued rivalry, stimulated by the avarice 



10 

of monopoly, and backed by the vast capital of England. If 
they were now abandoned to their fate, there was little like- 
lihood, that, in another war, men might be found mad enough 
or patriotic enough, to repeat the desperate experiment. 

To be without money to purchase a soldier's blanket, is a 
fearful weakness in the sinews of war ; but to be without the 
means to make the blanket, is a weakness incomparably 
greater. 

Upon the Congress that followed the ratification of peace, 
devolved the determination of this interesting subject ; and 
furtunate it was for our country, that the men who had sup- 
ported the war with their counsel and eloquence, and cheer- 
ed it to its close, were in that Congress. Mr. Clay, on his 
return from Europe, was elected to the house of representa- 
tives, and he met there from the South, Lowndes and Cal- 
houn, Cuthbert and Lumpkin, Mason and Philip P. Barbour, 
and the distinguished men from the North and the West, 
who had stood gallantly by his side in the day of past trial. 
Aided by the recommendation of President Madison, the 

leaders of the war party of , settled the question of our 

independence of England forever. 

Though the war had closed in triumph, and had elevated 
both the spirit and fame of the country, it left our national 
debt one hundred and twenty millions, and the nation- 
al finances in a ruinous derangement. The banks were 
in a state of suspension, without prospect of resumption ; for 
the unusual demand for the comforts and luxuries of life, so 
long withheld by the interruption of commerce, now created 
an incessant and exhausting drain of the precious metals to 
discharge the foreign debt contracted for their supply. Eu- 
rope had reconstructed her granaries on the fields of war. 
and she fed her artisans with the produce of her soil, and 
manufactured for the wants of the world. The banishment 
of the metals left no medium but a paper, depreciated, even 
at the fjreat marts of trade, at rates ranging from five to 
thirty per cent. In this the duties were collected, and when 
brought into the national treasury and reduced to the stand- 
ard of value, operated as discriminations, in or out of the 
favor of importers, to the full extent of depreciation. The 
revenue ceased to be certain, and taxation became unequal. 
In the opinion of Mr. Madison, the time had come, when it 
was the constitutional duty of Congress to select some means 
to equalize the duties, and to collect and disburse, without 
loss, the national revenue. His long experience in public 
affairs, and a judgment, ripening as he advanced in life, sug- 



11 

gested as the means necessary and proper to carry into exe- 
cution the injunctions of the constitution upon these subjects, 
a national bank ; and he recommended it. Mr. Clay, with a 
large majority of the republican party, both in and out of 
Congress, gave the measure his support. In the space of 
five years he had changed his judgment of the constitution- 
ality of the measure. On a bill introduced in 1811, U> renew 
the charter of the bank established in 1791, among many 
grounds of opposition, he had assumed that of its unconstitu- 
tionality ; and his speech ont he occasion, is truly a great and 
eloquent production. It is the solitary change, in a public 
Hie of nearly half a century, in his judgment on gieat 
constitutional questions. In making it. he changed with the 
country, and did but follow the example of Madison — that 
purest of public men, whose part, in the formation and 
advocacy of the constitution, was larger by far, than that of 
any other sage of the convention. There is, it is true, a high 
moral beauty in consistency, because it indicates a settled 
foundation in principle — but perfection is the attribute of 
God only. 

1 know but little difference, in the practical usefulness to 
our species, between him, who is too proud, or too obstinate 
to reform an erroneous opinion, and him, whose opinion is 
not worth the change. It had been proper for Mr. Clay, and 
it would have been in unison with the fearless frankness of 
his nature, to have avowed the change though the consequence 
had been a derogation from his elevated position. 

As a member, he might have been silent on the floor; and 
as the speaker of the house, without the privilege of a vote, 
he might have left his opinions unknown, and avoided the 
charge of inconsistency. But suck was not the man. lie 
then said in a speech of great power: ''I know the safest 
course for me, it I pursued a cold calculating prudence, is to 
adhere to that opinion right or wrong. I am perfectly aware, 
that if 1 change or seem to change it, I shall expose myself 
to some censure ; but I prefer to the suggestions of the pride 
of consistency, the evident interests of the community, and 
I have determined to throw myself upon its candor and 
justice." 

As the best fiscal agent of the government, and the neces- 
sary instrument to regulate the exchanges of trade between 
the several States of this widely extended confederacy, Mr. 
Clay was thenceforward the decided advocate of a .National 
Bank ; and he never ceased his exertions to preserve it at all 
times, till the attainment of the object became hopeless. 



12 

In 1811, nothing had occurred to demonstrate the inade- 
quacy of State Banks to administer the fiscal affairs of gov- 
ernment; and, believing that a National Bank was not" the 
means most fit, he thought it, therefore, unnecessary, and of 
course unconstitutional. In 1816, the substituted fiscal ar- 
rangement had disappointed public expectation, and proved 
its utter inaptitude to the duties imposed. Instructed by the 
lessons of the past, he returned to the path of a precedent, 
which, in the outset of the confederacy, had snatched the na- 
tional credit from the verge of bankruptcy, and lor a period of 
twenty years, had sustained it by the prudence and wisdom 
of its operation?. In 183*2, vvnen it was proposed to continue 
the charter of the bank of 1816, the lessons of experience 
had redoubled their force; the currency was sound, the in- 
strument had been faithful to its destination, and the ex- 
changes between the most distant parts of the Union fell gen- 
erally below one-half of one per cent. Believing that these 
blessings would be endangered by the adoption of the expe- 
riment then recommended, of substituting again the banks of 
the States, he earnestly advocated the renewal of its charter, 
and predicted, on the failure of the measure, with the fidelity 
of a history written of the past, the scenes of afflicting bank- 
ruptcy, distress, and the astounding commercial revulsion, 
which were subsequently suffered by the people and the go- 
vernment during the four years which followed its downfall. 

Of all the great measures of policy which employed the 
labors and intellect of Mr. Clay, that stands foremost of en- 
couraging the domestic manufactures of the country. It 
was, perhaps, the earliest of his convictions on any national 
topic, so extended in its effects on the welfare of the coun- 
try. In embracing it as the means of national defence, na- 
tional wealth and individual comfort, he appears to have 
consulted little besides his own enlightened observation, and 
to have drawn his arguments fiom a close inspection and 
examination of all the pursuits of life. The ingenious specu- 
lations of political economists, maintaining adverse theories 
with equal plausibility, and with a most puzzling perplexity, 
had small place in bis esteem. On 'his subject, so profoundly 
studied, with a thorough and ripe knowledge of all that made 
up its material, be was a great master himself. His speeches 
on the policy, exhibit a devoted attention, both to its gene- 
ral propositions and to its details; and those who have read 
them, in the times of party, but to answer or condemn them, 
will be amazed if they should study them in an hour of im- 



13 

partial reflection, devoted to the enquiry for truth, to find 
how free are his opinions from the sophisms and parado 
with which they have heen charged. 

The principles on which he based the expediency of intro- 
ducing a system of a home supply of manufactures essential 
to the wants of the government and people, were tin 

As to the wants of government: Every nation, in order to 
be independent, must have, in peace, the elements of efficient 
defence ready for a season ol war. A marine for the ocean, 
an army for the land and materials on hand, or readily pro- 
cured, to augment the force ol both ; and equally essential it 
is to provide raiment for the m^n, munitions of war. tools to 
construct and cordage and canvass for the equipment of the 
fleet. 

At the expense of the public purse we kept up. in antici* 
pation of hostilities, an army, a navy and a costly institution 
for the instruction of youth in the art of war; and if this 
forecast was wise enough to justify the annual expenditure 
of millions, it was the office, too, of a wise precaution to pro- 
vide, in time of peace, artisans to complete, in the hour of 
need, the efficiency of the national defences. 

As to the wants of the people : lie denied not, but admitted, 
that the first operation of protection would be an enhance- 
ment of price. Thirty-two years before his death, in a 
public speech, he said : 

"Present temporary inconvenience may be well submitted 
to for the sake of future permanent benefit. If the expe- 
rience of all other countries be not utterly fallacious — if the 
promises of the manufacturing system be not absolutely illu- 
sory, by the competition which will be elicited in conse- 
quence of a parental care, prices will be ultimately brought 
down to a level with that of the foreign commodity. In a 
scheme of policy which is devised for a nation, we should not 
limit our views to its operation during a single year. We 
should look at its operation for a considerable time, and in 
war as well as in peace." 

Nor did he deny, but admitted, that by withdrawing a por- 
tion of the population from the pursuits of agriculture there 
would be a less quantity of the productions of the soil to be 
exported abroad; but he contended, that as there was an ex- 
cess beyond consumption, new markets were demanded ; and 
that as to the staple of the South, the spindles and looms for its 
fabrication would be augmented, its consumption increased 



14 

and its growth encouraged ; and so by the manufacture of 
cotton and of wool — of the implements, munitions and ne- 
cessaries of war — of iron and steel into machinery and tools, 
the independence of the country of foreign supply would be 
consummated, tiie labor of agriculture would be rewarded, 
every branch of production increased, and, by the competi- 
tion elicited, the comforts of life would become plentiful and 
cheap. The precious metals would cease to be drawn away 
to fill up the balance of trade; the currency would be kept 
sound, and the nation, always prepared for war, would feel 
her strength, command her peace and maintain her dignity 
and rank among the powers of the earth. 

Such were the high expectations which Mr. Clay, in 1820, 
announced for the country, at no distant day, by the adop- 
tion of the system of home manufactures. But he gave no 
promise that they should be showered on a sudden. Need I 
ask, whether he did not live to see them all bless his country, 
and. increasing progressively, expand their beneficence over 
the whole land, disturbed seriously but once, and then in the 
period which intervened between 1836 and 1842 — a period 
embraced by the compromise of 1833, and equally remarka- 
ble for a great derangement of the currency. 

It was a principb of his system, that its introduction 
should be step by step, as recommended in 1791 by Mr. Jef- 
ferson. 

In 1820, he said: "Friendly as I am to the existence of 
domestic manufactures, I would not give to them unreason- 
able encouragement by protecting duties. Their growth 
ought to be gradual, but sure." 

It was a further principle of ihat system, announced by 
him in 1833, that, after the accumulation of capital and skill, 
the manufacturers would "stand alone, unaided by govern- 
ment, in competition with the imported articles from any 
quarter of the world." 

Finally, it was an additional principle of the system to pro- 
hibit the importation of nothing by protection, but, in impos- 
ing the duties laid for revenue, to adjust them so as to afford 
incidental protection to our own home industry. 

Under the fullest conviction that the policy was sound, for 
the reasons already stated, it became with him the greater 
favorite, because it countervailed the restrictions imposed on 
our trade by the commercial nations of Europe, and espe- 
cially by her whose aim, for the last century, has been, 
without change to the right or to the left, " to rule the waves.*' 



If) 

In the details of a policy, including such a number of article?, 
it had been the work of more than human wisdom to have 
struck, in all, the proper rate of duty. It cannot, therel 
be a matter of surprise, that, with many, there has been much 
dissatisfaction with particular parts ; nor that, with some, the 
dissatisfaction, at first but partial, should eventually have 
become so exasperated, as to end rashly, in a condemnation 
of the whole, as a system. 

It is not my purpose, on this occasion, to defend the policy, 
but to state it ; and, in justice to Mr. Clay, to state it, precisely 
as by him it was advocated. Nor is it my purpose to claim 
for him either the introduction or the continuance of th< 
policy. History has not assigned to him the instrumentality 
of inducting it into the councils of the nation ; and there have 
been too many great men, whose renown will descend along 
with his to posterity, who have participated with him in the 
work of its continuance, ever to allow his eulogist to claim 
for him, singly, the merit of Americanizing the policy. 

There was, certainly, no warmer or truer friend, than 
himself, to the measure ; but there were those who seemed to 
be not as ready to yield their convictions of its benefits to 
quiet the distraction of the country. Mr. Dallas and Mr. 
Webster, Mr. Adams and Mr. Benton, all refused their support 
to his reductive measure — the compromise act of 1833. 

During the disturbances in Europe, occasioned by the wars 
of Napoleon, the Spanish provinces of South America, led by 
our example, availed themselves of the embarrassment of the 
crown of Spain, and severed the tie of deperidance on the 
mother country. For many years previous to 1818, the 
insurgents had maintained their independence under regularly 
constituted governments ; but no people, yet had taken them 
by the hand of fellowship, and acknowledged the legitimate 
and full existence of their government. In that year, Mr. 
Clay, believing that the time had arrived, when, without any 
infringement of the wise and just policy recommended by 
Washington, and followed by his successors, against inter- 
vention in internal affairs of other nations, proposed to 
recognize them, as separate and independent people. 

His speech on the occasion, so far exceeded even his great 
lame as an orator, as to astonish his intimate friends, not less 
than the nation. Its recitals of the wrongs inflicted on the 
vassalage of the colonies stir the heart almost to madness. 
It was universally read over both divisions of this western 
hemisphere?. In Mexico, and in the great plains which de- 



16 

scene! from the foot of the Andes to either ocean of the 
world, it. nerved the struggling cause of freedom. And it is 
remembered to this day, wherever may survive a soldier or 
a patriot of the war, in which the bloody Morillo led the 
armies of Spain. 

The measure was not adopted. A cautious policy prefer- 
red a tardy, rather than, premature action in a matter of 
such delicacy, lest the country might be subjected to the 
suspicion ot imitating the then recent prapagandism of 
France. The discussion, however, awoke the public mind to 
examine the subject; and, in four years after, the country, 
acting on the principles on which he had predicated his ad- 
vocacy of the measure, recognized the sister republics of the 
South, as governments independent, de facto. 

Circumstances recently transpiring in the very heart of 
this Republic, involving the doctrine ot intervention, and 
subjecting Mr. Clay to very unkind criticisms because of a* 
supposed variance between his late opinions and those avow- 
sed in that speech, demand, in justice to him and to the 
country, that his doctrines should be clearly defined and un- 
derstood. I shall do it in his own language ; and though it 
may p.olong my hour, the times, no less than his own great 
fame, will pardon the privilege. In that speech he says: "I 
am no propagandist. I would not seek to force upon other 
nations our principles and our liberty, if they do tot want 
them. I would not disturb the repose even of a detestable 
despotism. But if an abused and oppressed people will their 
freed m ; if they seek to establish it; if, in truth, they have 
established it, we have the right, as a sovereign power, to 
notice the fact, and to act as circumstances and our interest 
require.'' "It is not necessary for their interests, it is 
not expedient for our own, that we should take part in the 
war. All they demand of us, is a just neutrality. It is 
compatible with this pacific policy — it is required by it, that 
we should recognize any established government. Recogni- 
tion alone, without aid, is no just cause of war.'' " We have 
constantly proceeded on the principle that the government 
de facto is that we can alone notice. Whatever form of 
government any society of people adopts, whoever they ac- 
knowledge as their sovereign, we consider that government 
or that sovereign as the one to be acknowledged by us. We 
have invariably abstained from assuming a right to decide in 
favor of the sovereign de jure, and against the sovereign 
de facto. This is a question for the nation, in which it 



17 

arises, to determine. I do not maintain that every immature 
revolution, every usurper, before his power ia consolidated, 

is to bo acknowledged by us; but that as soon as stability 
and order are maintained, no matter by whom, we always 
have considered, and ought to consider, the actual as the 
true government." • 

These are the sentiments which he so ardently desired to 
repeat, once more in the Senate, before he died. 

In the year 1819, Missouri applied for admission into the 
Union as a State. The application became the occasion of 
the most intense national excitement ever witnessed in the 
country. As the name of Mr. Clay has been so long con- 
nected, in the popular mind, with the incidents which at- 
tended the progress and disposition of the questions wdiich 
then arose, it would be unpardonable, on such an occasion 
as this, e it tier to pass the subject in silence, or to bestow on 
it a bare allusion. 

Missouri was the first portion, after the State of Louisiana, 
of the vast acquisition of territory by purchase from France, 
which sought entrance into the Union. On presenting her- 
self, a provision was attached to the bill lor her admission, 
prohibiting the introduction of slaves, and declaring that all 
children of slaves already introduced, born thereafter, should 
become i'vee on attaining to the age of twenty-five. It was 
passed by the House of Representatives, but the condition 
was stricken out by the Senate. The House, refused to con- 
cur, and the Senate to recede; and, in this alarming state of 
affairs. Congress adjourned. 

In the interval between that time and the re-assemblage of 
Congress, the entire Union became inflamed to the highest 
degree. Popular addresses, inflammatory appeals, legislative 
resolves and instructions, throughout the Republic, engaged 
and exasperated the * feelings oi men. When Congress as- 
sembled, the members, coming from a heated furnace of 
popular passion, renewed the discussion with redoubled 
warmth and resentment. North was arrayed against South 
by a strict geographical line ; and the most anxious apprehen- 
sions were entertained of the result. The occasion was, 
indeed, painfully interesting. Never, since the formation of 
the constitution, was there so much need of the presence 
and influence and conduct of a statesman. Mr. Clay, who 
was of ardent nature himself, and prone to press his own 
views with animated zeal, had often seen, without alarm, the 
hasty spark flash, and die away of its own combustion; but 
3 2 



IS 

now he saw the flash turn to living coal, and grow fiercer 
the more it burnt. For the first time in his life, he threw 
himself into th3 midst of a conflict raging between his coun- 
trymen, as the mediator in their resentments; and, without 
the smallest sacrifice of his opinions on the constitutional 
rights of Missouri, he breathed over the House so effectually 
his own ''lowing patriotism, that, for the time, he stilled the 
angry elements of faction, and allayed the demon of discord. 

Having imbued the House with a spirit of conciliation, he 
next, with the tact of an accomplished negotiator, recom- 
mended, in lieu of the distateful condition, the harmless pro- 
vision that her constitution should "not be repugnant to the 
constitution of the United States." The bill became a law, 
and nothing remained, as was then supposed, but to pass on 
the question, when her constitution might be presented to 
Congress, whether it was republican. There being no need, 
in that instrument, to say a word of slavery, the admission 
was deemed to be settled. 

In the summer of 1820, she adopted a constitution, and 
inserted therein a provision excluding free negroes from the 
State. 

At the convening of Congress in December, 1820, the 
constitution was presented to Congress for approval, when 
the smothered and pent up fires again burst forth in a rage 
wholly unequalled by the previous flame; its violence and 
heat were too great for a while to allow any man to attempt 
its extinction ; but the eyes or the nation, and the calmer 
part of Congress, were directed towards him who, just be- 
fore, had so skilfully extricated the nation from its danger. 
He came to the rescue; and it was well understood at the 
tim p . that he came to the rescue of the Union ! Upon his 
motion the whole subject was referred to a select committee 
of thirteen, of which he was chairman. On the 10th of 
February, 1824, he made an able report, concluding with a 
resolution of admission into the Union, on condition that she 
should never pass any law inhibiting any persons ivho might 
be citizens of any other State, from coming into her own. In 
committee of the'whole it was rejected, but it passed through 
the House to its last reading, when, on a sudden, the torch 
was lighted again into the fiercest biaze, and it was lost by a 
majority of three votes. On the next day a motion to re- 
consider was carried, and again it was debated with un pa- 
rallelled acrimony and rancour of feeling. Never, but on 
one occasion besides, did Mr. Clay stand forth so pre-emi- 



19 

nently great— so far above the other men of the day. 
his masterly powers of argument, all his magi.-, pathos erf 
manner, of voice, of seductive persuasion, were displayed to 
the House. But they were displayed in vain. The resolu- 
tion was lost. 

Many these were who regarded this as the last effort 
which could by made. During three years, the question had 
been shaking the country to its centre, but there was, all the 
time, hope, and there was effort. These seemnd now to have 
been exhausted. No one dared to propose an expedient ; 
and there was a frightful pause, a solemn stillness, such as 
intervenes between the first great, shock and the convulsive 
conclusion of the earthquake. 

But Mr. Clay never despaired of the Republic. A great 
master of the springs of human action, he was rejoiced to 
witness the secret fears which betrayed themselves in the 
whispers and stillness of the scene. lie gave no encourage- 
ment to hope, but allowed the alarm for the safety of the 
Union to spread. A respite was necessary for the settling 
of the infuriated emotions of a faction, hardened against the 
impulses of patriotism, and blind to the saddest havoc of its 
hands. 

Alter the danger had been surveyed and acknowledged, 
Mr. Clay once more attempted the settlement of the engross- 
ing controversy. The whole matter, at his suggestion, was 
referred to a select joint committee, who, submitting them- 
selves to his guidance, reported the resolution before reject- 
ed, and it was adopted by a majority of six. 

Thus was settled, the first time it occurred, in favor of the 
South, of free government, and, I believe, of the Union, a 
question which, in principle, began with the adoption of the 
Constitution and, twice since, has made its alarming appear- 
ance, at the precise interval of thirty years in distance of time. 

I have taken the more pains to present, in detail, the c 
of Missouri : First, to shew the real danger of introducing 
this question into our national councils, and, therefore, the 
duty of the patriot to avoid it by every honorable means; 
next to encourage every lover of the Union never to despair 
of its integrity, however strong and persevering may appear 
to be the fanaticism of the hour, and, lastly and mainly, it be- 
longs to this discourse, because it not only sheds immortal 
renown on Mr. Clay, but illustrates the closing labors of that 
salvation of his count>y, which brought him to his tomb, 
crowned the devotion of his long life to his country, and 
buried him in the heaVts of his countrymen. 



20 

Just twelve years after the signal service of Mr. Clay in 
the admission of Missouri, a second occasion in the order of 
his lite demanded his talents, under extraordinary circum- 
stances, to prevent a collision between one of the States and 
the Federal Government. The tariff of 1828 was made the 
pretext for certain State action on the part of South Caro- 
lina, which had for its object to exclude the law from opera- 
tion within her territory. At the election of Mr. Adams, in 
1825, Gen. Jackson had promulgated against Mr. Clay a 
charge so deeply affecting his character, public and private, 
that, in the language of the latter, an "impassable barrier" 
was placed between them. Jn 1828, Gen'l Jackson was 
elected President by an overwhelming vote, on the ticket 
with Mr. Calhoun for Vice President, and, in a brief space of 
time, the President found cause, satisfactory to himself, to 
cast Mr. Calhoun from his friendship and confidence. An 
angry correspondence between them left, in the bosom of each, 
the most embittered feelings. 

Mr. Clay was not in Congress at the enactment of the 
tariff of 1828, and disapproved man)' of its high duties. The 
d scoutents of South Carolina grew so loud, that he intro- 
duced a bill revising the whole system of duties, and dimin- 
ishing them very materially, and it became a law in July, 
1832. The measure, however, did not satisfy South Caro- 
lina, and produced not a moment's pause in the prosecution 
of the extraordinary and unprecedented mode ot relief 
which she had devised lor the occasion; which was nothing 
le.^s than to abrogate within her borders as much of the en- 
tire law imposing duties as might not seem, in her single and 
exclusive judgment, conformable to the Constitution of the 
Union. The more securely to effect her purpose, she exacted 
an oath of all the civil officers of the State to execute the or- 
dinance of nullification. At the same time she seemed to 
assume an attitude ol defiance, by arming her citizens and pro- 
viding munitions of war. A day was assigned for the sus- 
pension of the Federal authority, and the execution of the or- 
dinance. That day was the first day of February, 1833. As 
the fated day was approaching, the Executive procured the 
passage 'of an act, which invested him with the strongest 
military power. A proclamation from the President an- 
nounced his determination to enforce the laws of the Union, 
with the military force of government, and that he would 
treat all combinations lor resistance of the laws, accompa- 
nied with an overt act, as actual rebellion. South Carolina 



21 

thundered back her counter-proclamation : the issue was 
joined. Oaths had been taken impelling each party to the 
execution of his declared purpose. The military of the U. 
States occupied the port of Charleston, and South Carolina 
was mustering her citizens into the held. Brave words had 
been spoken on both sides ; and th >se who knew Gen. Jack- 
son, knew that, with power to do, he would do what he said 
he would do. Besides, he came into the executive chair with 
an open pledge, both by vote and by letter, to sustain a de- 
cided protective policy, and every tariff of which she com- 
plained had been enacted and sustained by Congresses of his 
political friends. 

The prospect of civil war was before us, and we counted 
the days as it came nearer and nearer. The apprehension 
of so great a calamity produced an excitement too deeply 
intense and painful for utterance. In the dead hour of the 
night, the rapid footfall of the express horse, bearing his rider 
along our roads, with secret dipatahes to and from the seat 
of government, fell on our ear, as the omen of a vast and 
undefinable catastrophe. 

_ In this troubled night of perplexity, and without expecta- 
tion by the country, our erring sister postponed the final day, 
and so placed herself in the position of being impelled by a 
sense of shame to execute, at the second appointed hour, her 
rash purpose, or become the subject of taunt and ridicule. 

To whom, fellow-citizens did the nation now look lor the 
delivering of that sister from the jaws of a most critical peril ? 
The President, powerful as he was among his countrymen, had 
lost, by his quarrel with the idolize! statesman of South 
Carolina, and by the sarcastic tone of his able and timely pro- 
clamation, the position to mediate acceptably ; in fact, the 
attitude of the Executive was such, that advances by him 
would have been treated as weakness and irresolution of pur- 
pose, and, cost what it might, Cen'l Jackson was never the 
man to tread backwards. On the other hand, Mr. Calhoun 
would have considered it an act of humiliation, both in him- 
self and his State, of which he was the proud and sole expo- 
nent, if South Carolina should fall back an inch. 

In this interesting moment, full of imminent danger, and 
demanding cooln >ss, tact, patriotism of the highest order, and 
the confidence of the country, Mr. Clay, upon whom now 
the eyes of all men were cast, stepped between the Govern- 
ment and the State, and saved the one from both rebel ion and 
dishonor, and the other from the dire necessity of applying 



22 

the extreme and abhorred, and, possibly, fatal remedy of the 
gword. He saved, too, the policy of fostering our domestic 
industry, which, under the influence of a panic, or, in the 
dreadful convulsions of civil wars, was likely to be utterly 
destroyed or seriously disturbed for a great length of time. 

His plan was extremely simple, and, considering, that the 
stake was the peace of the country, was both plausible and 
wise. The injury to the country, the capitalists and the 
operatives, if injury should ensue, by the gradual reduction 
of duties, would be gradual also; thus avoiding a sudden 
crash and allowing each interest time to retreat with all the 
security which experience and forecaste could provide, and, 
at the same time, allowing, too, an opportunity for the sober- 
ing operation of years on the judgment of men, and, above 
all, affording a period, wherein might be seen (if such a result 
would follow) the prosperity of the country increase as 
foreign trade grew freer from the burthen of duties and ex- 
pelled our own fabrics from a living competition with the 
fabrics of a world, greatly surpassing us in capital, superior, in 
skill, and laboring daily for the reward of a daily bread. • 

The history of this experiment, has been too recently 
drawn into partizan conflict to secure an impartial decision 
on the point, whether the period of time from 1833 to 1842, 
with its accompanying disasters to the revenue and the cur- 
rency and oi individual bankruptcy, was affected or not, in its 
unhappy incidents, by that measure of conciliation, or by the 
worthless currency which sprung into existence, or by both 
causes combined. 

More than half the period allotted to a generation of men 
has passed since the eventful year of 1833. The three great 
actors in the drama of that day have been gathered to their 
fathers, and the larger portion, by far, of those I address, 
know the times only by the tradition of their dangers to the 
Union, to liberty arid to all the interests of humanity. This 
work was emphatically the work of Mr. ("lay. While the 
danger was at its height, Mr. Randolph said ; "There is one 
man, and one man only, who can save this Union. That 
man is Henry Clay. I know he has the power; I believe he 
will be found to have the patriotism and firmness equal to 
the occasion." And when I he statesman arose to speak, Mr. 
Randolph, who had caused himself to be brought to the Sen- 
ate, in an extremely feeble state, cried < ut : "Help me up — 
help me up, I came here to hear that voice." 

The two s leeche* which Mr. Clay delivered on introduc- 



23 

ing the bill and in reply to the opposition, are admirable 
specimens of the finished orator, but nobler far, as specimens 
of a generous soul, bursting the fetters of party tie* and as- 
cending to that elevated atmosphere, where the patriotic 
statesman, ministering at the altar of his country, lays down, 
in sacrifice for her peace, much of a long cherished policy, 
his own mortal injuries, and the" embittered feelings of a sen- 
sitive and wounded spirit. 

The true character of Mr. Clay is perfectly portrayed in 
those speeches. ''There are some," says lie, " who say let 
the tariff go down ; let our manufactures be prostrated, if 
such be the will and pleasure, at another session, of those to 
whose hands the government of the country is confided ; let 
bankruptcy and ruin be spread over the land, and let resis- 
tance to the laws, at all hazards, be subdued. Sir, they take 
counsel of their passions. No! No! Let us save the coun- 
try from the most dreadful of all calamities; and let us save 
its industry, too, from threatened destruction. Statesmen 
should regulate their conduct and adapt their measures to 
the exigencies of the times in which they live. They can- 
not, indeed, transcend the limits of the constitutional rule ; 
but with respect to those systems of policy which fall within 
its scope, they should arrange them according to the in- 
terests, the wants and the prejudices of the people. Two 
great dangers threaten the pubiic safety. The true patriot 
will not stop to enquire how they have been brought about, 
but will fly to the deliverance of his country. The differ- 
ence between the friend and foes of the compromise under 
consideration is, that they would, in the enforcing act, send 
forth a flaming sword. We would send out that also, but, 
along with it the olive branch, as a messenger of peace. 
They cry out, the law ! law! law! Power! power! power! 
We, too, reverence the law and bow to the supremacy of its 
obligation; but we are in favor of the law executed in mild- 
ness, and of power tempered with mercy. They, as we think, 
would hazard a civil commotion, beginning in South Caro- 
lina and extending, God only knows where. While we 
would vindicate the Federal Goverment, we are for peace, if 
possible, union and liberty. We want no war — above all, 
no civil war. No family strife. We want to see no sacked 
cities, no desolated fields, no smoking ruins, no streams of 
American blood, shed by American arms! * * * 

I have been accused of ambition in presenting this measure. 
Ambition ! If I had listened to its soft and seducing wins- 



24 

pers — if I had yielded myself to ihe dictates of a cold, calcu- 
lating and prudential policy, I would have st od still, un- 
moved. I might even have silently gazed on the raging 
storm, enjoyed its loudest thunders, and left those v ho are 
charged with the care of the vessel of state to conduct it as 
they could. I have been heretofore often unjustly accused 
of ambition. Low, grovelling souls, who are utterly incapa- 
ble of eleva ing themselves to the higher and nobler duties 
of pure patriotism — beings who, forever keeping their own 
selfish aims in view, decide all public measures by their pre- 
sumed influence on their aggrandizement, judge me by the 
venal rule which they prescribe for themselves. I have given 
to the winds those false accusations, as I consign that which 
now impeaches my motives. Yes, I have ambition ; but it is 
the ambition of being the humble instrument, in the hands of 
Providence, to reconcile a divided people; once more to re- 
vive concord and harmony in a distracted laud — the pleas- 
ing ambition of contemplating the glorious spectacle of a 
free, united, prosperous, and fraternal people." 

In considering, in one connection, the favorite measure of 
Mr. Clay's policy, and the prominent incidents growing out 
ot it, I have passed over, in the proper order of events, a 
most interesting part of his public life. I allude to his can- 
didacy for president of the United States, at the election of 
1824, and the post of Secretary of State which he filled un- 
der Adams, during his presidential term. From the adoption 
ot the constitution in 1789, to the year 1825, a period of 
thirty-six years, the chief magistracy of the nation was ac- 
corded, with a remarkable unanimity, to the distinguished 
sages who bore the most conspicuous part in conducting our 
independence through the stormy period of the revolutionary 
war. and the no less critical labor of framing the constitu- 
tion. The year 1824 found the distinguished men of those 
periods called to their rest, or too much bowed with length- 
ened years to assume the cares of responsible office. Four 
men, whose infancy had been nursed amid the dangers of our 
arms, and whose manhood had won, each for himself, a name 
ol" renown, followed close in their wake — John Quiney 
Adams, William 11. Crawford, Andrew Jackson, and Henry 
Clay — each one a popular favorite — were presented to the 
people to succeed to the seat, just about to be vacated by the 
last of the noble line of the patriots of '76. No one having 
received a majority of votes in the electoral college, the 
election went, by the constitutional provision, to the House 



25 

of Representatives', and Mr. Adams was chosen presi 
Mr. Clay was offered, and accepted, the appointment of 
Secretary of Stale. Every body then knew, every body 
now knows, his superior qualifications for that distinguished 
ollice. Its duties have, at no time, been performed with 
greater fidelity, and the papers emanating from the depart* 
ment during his service, are among the line models to be 
found in that bureau. The administration, however, was 
most unsparingly assailed, and, mainly, through a charge made 
against Mr Clay, that he had bartered his vote in the House 
of Representatives, tor the ollice of Secretary of Slam. 

The accusation, as soon as made, was met by a prompt 
and indignant denial, and Mr. Clay demanded of the House, 
over which he then presided, the fullest investigation, and 
challenged his accuser to the proof, who avowed himseli 
ready tor the trial. A committee was appointed, not a mem- 
ber of whom was his political friend; but the vaunting ac- 
cuser refused to appear with his proofs; and. lor the time, 
the aspersion sunk into profound silence, where, forever, it 
had remained buried in that "lower deep" which lies below 
the "lowest depth," but that it was snatched up, as it was 
sinking to its destined home, and pressed, without scruple or 
remorse, into the service of a partizan warfare of extraordi- 
nary activity and bitterness. 

For the space of two years it circulated, as most widely 
do all scandals, without proof or a responsible name. In 
vain did Mr. Clay, wounded to the quick by the calumny, 
invite an opportunity to confront its endorser. Finally, Gen. 
Jackson, to whose private conversations many references 
had been made, as the fountain of the charge, surrendered 
Mr. Buchanan as his informant.' That gentleman, since so 
distinguished in high public station, immediately, and without 
anv prompting but his position, denied, in the most emphatic 
terms, that he had made the statement attributed to him, and 
complained, with some feeling, that he could be supposed 
capable of actinr the corrupt part assigned to him. 

Such, and no more, was the foundation on which was 
rested the imputed foul contract of corruption between 
Adams and Clay. Mr. Kremer who first uttered it, a simple 
honest man, and doubtless the mere tool of a curtained 
instigator, within twenty-four hours after he had avowed 
his readiness to prove it, retracted the charge, and, in twen- 
ty-four hours afterwards, reaffirmed it, but would never, and 



26 

did never, disclose his proof or his witnesses. Mr. Buchan- 
an was the only person ever referred to as a witness of the" 
bargain. 

Alter this lapse of time, I know it will be incomprehensi- 
ble to this generation of men, how a charge, so utterly desti- 
tute of testimony to support it, and so much at variance with 
the frank and honorable character of Mr. Clay, illustrated 
through a public and private life then thirty years old, could 
last, not only a day, but extend over a space of fifteen years 
of his after existence. For, besides the absence of accusatory 
proof, a dozen men oi distinction bore evidence, that before 
the meeting of Congress, Mr. Clay had declared that, in no 
even', could he support Gen'l. Jackson, and should vote for 
Mr. Adams. Among them are now remembered the names 
of Gen'l. Lafayette, Gen'l. McArthur, Gov. Metcalf and 
Thomas H. Benton. 

Mr. Clay was indebted for the continuance of the calumny 
to two causes; the one was that Gen'l. Jackson gave to it 
credit even after his only witness had failed to support it : 
and the other was, his prominent position and supposed aspi- 
ration for the executive chair. 

A public retractiqn by the hero of New Orleans, of the 
charge made on the supposed relation of Mr. Buchanan, 
after that gentleman had withdrawn himself as the > itness, 
became no less an act of duty to himself, than ol justi e to 
Mr. Clay. If he had misapprehended his witness, he had 
imprudently, if innocently, done wrong to a gentleman, and 
if his witness had prevaricated, then his testimony was too 
unsafe for reliance, and should have been discredited forever. 
Such, however, was not his view of his duty: and so un- 
bounded was his possession of the confidence and affections 
of the. people, that, his will and his wishes became their law 
and their pleasure. His suspicions, well founded or delusive, 
blighted with the destructive power of ascertained truth. 
and he was aware of it : And the facility with which during 
his second candidacy, and first term of service, be prostrated 
public men of renown, astonished both them and the nation. 

His power was equally great, to extricate, from a long and 
burdensome odium, those on whom he laid but a finger of 
(Savor or protection ; and, not content with securing to him- 
self such undisputed supremacy over the minds and fate of 
his countrymen, while sitting, himself at the helm of affairs, 
Im- sought to extend it into the future, and to leave, as he 
retired, the impress of his feelings as a legacy to the nation. 



A word of retraction would have ensured the acquittal of 

Mr. Clay, but that word died with him, and was buried with* 
him. 1 know it will be asked if such conduct is consistent 
with the general frankness of the hero of New Orleans? 
That personage was remarkable lor one quality, above all 
others; it was the star of his life and of his fortunes — the 
unvarying principle of his action : He n raced his 

steps. Although highly impulsive in his nature, and prone t<> 
hasty conclusion, in the policy of his measures, he never 
abandoned his position; in his personal difficulties never con- 
ceded an error, and never made an apology in a quarrel — 
change of purpose knew him not, and compromise was 
weakness. Warm to blindness, in his friendships, his ene- 
mies found no quarter at his hands, but in the impregnability 
of their position. Open to demonstrations of kindness, and 
accessible to flattery, he readily bestowed his heart, but the 
measure of his vengeance fell terribly on those who betrayed 
or slighted the gift. Justly proud of his achievements in 
war, he was too sensitive to brook, from a man of distinction, 
a breath of censure on his fame; and the speech of Mr. 
Clay on the conduct of the Seminole campaign, was never 
forgiven. Its strictures will descend along with his deeds, 
both imperishable alike, in the history of the country. 

There are, in the lives of these distinguished men, some 
points of coincidence, not unworthy to be noted on this oeca- 
sion. Both, children of the revolution, orphans and penny- 
less — both adopted the same pursuit in life — both quitted the 
comforts and cultivated fields of their youth, and, without 
patrons or friends, threw themselves into a wilderness beyond 
the mountains, to swell the throng of adventurers, comming- 
ling together, for the first tim ■. sat down in the wooda 
of the west. And both, though summoned by their country 
to different fields in the war of 1812, became chief in his p 
and won, by his services, a monument of gratitude and lame. 
Both have been idols of their country; but here the coinci- 
dence ends. 

Groudless, ungrateful and unjust as was the charge of the 
bargain, it doubtless, for many years, threw a cloud around 
the character of Mr. Clay, and deeply affected his popularity, 
with no inconsiderable portion ol his countrymen. It endu 
too long, suddenly to clear away : and he passed the zenith of 
his life, with its shadows resting on the broad disc of his sun. 
The grief of his mighty heart was great indeed ; and those 
who could have pleasure in looking on a brave man struggling 



28 

with adversity — a sight, says Addison, worthy the contem- 
plation of the Gods — have seen the noblest which any age 
may afford. But his courage never forsook him ; and in all 
the dark hour, cheered by his conscience, which ..ever 
abandons the innocent, he threw his arms around his country, 
and, with a love which things past, nor things present, nor 
things to come, nor any livinj creature could diminish or 
dim, he gave up his mind and his soul to her service. 

His position demanded, in his opinion, a public refutation 
of the slander, and called forth, on two several Occasions, a 
defence, which, for lofty eloquence, severe analysis, powerful 
and unanswerable argument, may challenge to the comparison 
the first specimens of the kind, which have ever been written 
or spoken ; and go down they will to posterity, where, unless 
the lessons of history be untrue, positions will be changed. 
He that was the accuser, will become the accused ; and 
happy will he be, if amid the silence of that hall, where sits 
in just judgment the inflexible judge of the past, unmoved by 
the voice of adulation or the shout of applause, lie may find 
in his bosom or his tongue, a vindication so eloquent of truth, 
as that record of defence, which once lay unheeded and 
buried under his frowns. 

With unrivalled power, these compositions exhibit both 
the exasperation of his griefs, and the testimony of his own 
bosom. 

Speaking of the action of the Senate on his nomination for 
the bureau of State, he says, every Senator present was 
silent as to the imputation : "No one presuming to question 
my honor or integrity : how can General Jackson justify to 
his conscience or to his country this palpable breach ol his 
public duty ! It is in vain to say that he gave a silent nega- 
tive vote. He was in possession of information, winch, if 
true, must have occasioned the rejection of my nomination. 
Investigation was alike due to the purity of the national 
counsels, to me, and, as an act of strict, justice, to all other 
parties implicated." * * * * " 1 have never done him, 
knowingly, any injustice. I have taken pleasure, on t^vevy 
propei occasion, to bestow on him merited praise for the 
glorious issue Q/f the battle of New Orleans. * * * He 
has erected between us an impassible barrier, and I would 
scorn to accept any favor at his hands. I thank my God 
that lie has endowed me with a soul, incapable of apprehen- 
sions from the anger of any being but himself." 

Then passing to his constituents — the people whose fathers 



29 

received him in his indigence, and cheered him onward as 
he rose to distinction — whose sons had surrounded him with 
thf» shield of their confidence and affection in every trial of 
ids life, anil had been the more devoted, as the more manifest 
became his peril — he poured forth a stream of warm grati- 
tude, which could gush only from the fountains of virtue 
and integrity, melted into kindness. M „Throughou1 the whole 
of these scenes" (so he concluded before them his matchless 
defence) " \ ou have cluntj; to me with an affectionate confi- 
dence which has never been surpassed. 1 have found in 
your attachment, in every < mbarrassment in my public 
career, the greatest consolation and the most encoura 
support. I should regard th v loss of it as one of the i 
afflicting public misfortunes which could befall me. That I 
have often misconceived your true interests, is highly proba- 
ble. That 1 ever sacrificed them to th s object of personal 
aggrandizement, I utterly deny. And. for the purity of my 
motives, however in other respects 1 may be unworthy to 
approach the throne of grace and mercy, I appeal to the 
justice of my God with all the confidence which can flow 
irom a consciousness of perfect rectitude." Despite, how- 
ever, of every effort of traduction, malice, nor envy, nor 
ignorance, nor all combined, could obscure altogether Hie 
favorite son of Kentucky. But, like the fair queen of the 
night, beheld from different points by the different nations of 
the earth, while his enemies saw but the diminished outline 
of a glory covered in cloud, he turned on his friends, un- 
shorn and serene, the face of a full round orb of light. 

The friends of Mr. Clay were not only devoted, but in- 
vincible in their attachment. Although overshadow 
large opposing majority, they delighted to exhibit every proof 
of "their affection and esteem. No other mm has been ever 
so often presented by his friends for the high office of Presi- 
dent ; and, although" always defeated, there is not a living 
voter, who does not cherish with exultation and pride the 
compliment he tried to bestow. 

In 1844 they presented his name for the last time. In 
this canvas, the agencies of his former defeats were but little 
felt. Those who had ignorantly and innocently imbibed be- 
lief in the partizan tale of corruption, surrendered their i 
dulity to the unceasing proof which every succeeding day o 
his life offered of his manly, noble, and elevate I character, 
which, like a silent, but 'irresistible flood, had swept the 
calumny away. His views upon an isolated question of 



so 

great public concern, did not accord with the existing sym- 
pathies of a large portion of his countrymen. The annexa- 
tion of Texas had engrossed the public mind, and enlisted 
i'.s advocacy. Apprehensive that it might be the occasion 
of war with a neighboring Republic, whose patriotic strug- 
gles for liberty had won for her our admiration and attach- 
ment ; and that, as a consequence, our country might again 
be disturbed by the terrible and dangerous storms which he 
had found it so difficult to allay on the admission of Missouri, 
he did not hesitate to prefer peace, and the safety of the 
Union, to an extended domain, in whose acquisition and 
disposition, both might be endangered. 

From the year 1831 to his resignation in 1842, he occupied 
a seat in the Senate, an open opponent of most of the great 
measures favored by the administrations of presidents 
Jackson and Van Buren. In no period of the Republic has 
there been a more magnificent display of mighty minds, in 
the simple grandeur of intellect, in the severity of logic or 
in the power of eloquence. It is emphatically the Augustan 
age of the Senate. Like the wonderful times which brought 
together in the parliament of Great Britain a Burke, a Chat- 
ham and a Fox, which Were seen never before, and witness- 
ed never since, th mblage in one body, of a Clay, a 
Webster and a Calhoun, is the event of a chance which 
centuries may labor, in vain, to reproduce. 

•' Nil orituruin alias, nil ortum tale." 

and eloquent as are many who remain, it is the common 
feeling of all, that the great lights have been withdrawn from 
ihe political firmament. 

The efforts of Mr. Clay, during this period, are notable for 
their able vindication of constitutional liberty, for dispassion- 
rgument and statesmanlike views ; and as a whole, are 
the most finished productions of his public career. 

In March 1842, Mr. CJay res'gnea his seat in the Senate 
as he then, confidently expected, forever: and thus would 
have terminated his connection with public affairs, but for 
the exciting and dangerous questions which sprung into exis- 
tence out of the results of annexation. 

Thirty years had now passed since the troubles of the 
1 »uri agitation had been composed into peace; but their 
source still remained ; and. though buried beneath a surface 
of apparent repose, it was not difficult to hear from within 
the volcano, even when there was sunshine around it, the 



31 

distant noise of its explosions: and ihe smoke which arose, 
and ihe fierce blaze which .; the 

murmurs of its wrath suppressed, all, - the statesman 

of the earthquake that would follow, 
within should be stirred into a commotion. 

On this subject, no living man of renown had, from the 
events of the past, drawn di ons of vvi lorn than 

Mr. CI >y; and no one had so often 
appreciated, the magnitude of 

The conflict had been approaching under the auspices of 
great and opposing movements, i In the one hand, the fa 
ics of the North had boldly invaded the h 
with language of menace and insult ; on the other, the 
annexation of Texas, achieved . i of sur- 

prise, lot only aroused ll fanatic, 

awoke the jealousies whii rd the balance 

of power. Then' came the . introdi 

avowedly in the spirit of a wantpn 

the delicate subject. Mutually exasperated by events thus 
repeated at intervals, with resentments in ven- 

tions, and inflamed by violent address 
soberness of a large portion of ths An 

gave way, and became maddened, even to desire a dismem- 
berment of the Union. The threa ivils had been 
borne by the South in the events attei on of 
Missouri, but there was then more patience among the i 
pie. and there were, too, yet left among us, the cool 
patriotic heads of the venerable Adi • rson, of 
Madison and Monroe — they who I, 

from the laving of the first timber in i by a 

thousand dangers, and yet ever ri antly through the 

difficulties that beset her. They then cheered the country 
with hope, and encouraged her patriots ne- pair, but 

to cling to the last plank which 'might float on the bosom of 
the deep, and keep above it the Larin< r of ' n. Bui 

their voice was now hushed in th( 
of forbearance served not as a beacon in tl 

It was in this hour that the e lo< 

around for their deliverer. No man knew better than 
Mr. Clay, the imminence of tl I. he h tened I i 

return to the councils of his country. Jt ted ol 

him. It was his duty ; and to know it, was to take no thought 
of himself, and, straightway, to dis< 

On this last field of his patriotic labors, he entered in the 



/ 



32 

74th year of his age. Yet, lithe was his form, and untouched 
by the hand of time, the erectness ol his tall stature. In the 
purest lemper of conciliation, he commenced his pious work. 
appealing to all in the spirit of patriotism which had led our 
forefathers through common sufferings of unexampled severi- 
ty, to a common destiny of liberty and union. The points 
ol difference were stated with clearness and precision, and 
were divested of all undue and imaginary importance. He 
showed to both parties that the contest was more a matter of 
principle, than of practical operation ; and that, by forbear- 
ing the hand of legislation, the proper interests of each would 
be protected, and the honor of neither would be sacrificed or 
sullied. During many months was this subject considered, 
to the exclusion oi' all others. It assumed every possible 
aspect, and was discussed in every shape. Day by day, 
during this long interval, did Mr. Clay stand up in the Senate 
to argue the questions as they arose ; and, with a masterly 
and inconceivable knowledge, both general and in detail, that 
astonished us all, did he meet and discuss every objection, 
recommending himself, with a pliancy of mind that showed 
his mastery of the heart, now to the obstinate prejudices of 
the north, and now to the fiery and uncalculating passions of 
the South. 

The objections to his plans were as opposite as the sec- 
tions from which they arose, and as various as, in each section, 
were the differences of opinion ; yet was he prepared for 
them all. In the outset, his prospects, ol' success were 
gloomy and discouraging, and fearfully foreboded, even, that 
amid the violence of feeling, his venerable form, nor national 
renown, nor past services, would secure to him, in his sacred 
office of mediator, the ordinary courtesies of parliamentary 
decorum. Still he persevered, yielding every tiling to pre- 
judice which might be safely conceded ; but, in every matter 
of substance, remaining firm and unshaken. The immensity 
of his labors was without a parallel, even in the vigor of his 
manhood. Buried in his subject, endued with a courage that 
never fa'tered, and a hope which never despaired, his elo- 
quence arose to inspiration. Now, it was heard in the se- 
ductive accents of gentle persuasion ; and now, it invoked 
the spirits of the departed — of the father of his country, and 
the companions of his arms and his counsels, till we could 
almost see them descending to his aid. At one time, it would 
display a land of unequalled fertility, begirt by the great 
oceans of the earth, filled with untold millions of freemen, 



33 

possessed of the commerce of the seas, with one flag for their 
wars and one flag in their peace. Then, with the power of 
its magic, the picture was changed. The millions of freemen 
were broken into fragments— their honored flag was torn into 
insignificant strips, and each little strip bore a lone and laded 
star. The brazen trumpet of discord was heard blowing 
loud over land and over sea ; and maddened by sectional 
strife, or led by devouring ambition, or phrensied by fanati- 
cism, clothed in the flames of hell, were seen mustering for 
the conflict of fraternal blood, their petty navies and infu- 
riated yeomanry. 

It was with an affection which tongue may not express, 
that you, and I, and all of us, beheld that venerable man. 
with the weight of near fourscore years on his head, again 
spread out his arms over his beloved land, to shield it from 
the dangers which came upon it from the North and from 
the South, and threatened it with violence and destruction 
And it was with amazement and awe that we saw him stand- 
ing by the altar of his country, and, as the perils increased, 
gathering strength and energy, till he seemed the impassioned 
and inspired genius of the constitution and the Union, com- 
missioned bv the blood of the past and the hopes of the fu- 
ture, to defend them, or, dying by their side, and covered 
with their pall, to fill with them a common grave. Heaven 
favored his labors, and he saw the salvation of his country. 
He saw it and died. 

In this magnificent labor, he was the chief actor and the 
master spirit ; but there were others who shared in the labor, 
the principal of whom was the great Webster, who, in a 
gpirit of self-sacrifice which patriotic minds only can make, hag 
added to the noble title of expounder of the constitution, 
which he gained in the day of its danger, and so worthily 
wears, the title, no less glorious, and won, also, in the hour of 
its danger, of defender of the Union. 

In the year 1799, Mr. Clay was married to Lucretia Hart, 
a daughter of Col. Thomas Hart, of Lexington, who had 
emigrated from Maryland. She bore him eleven children, 
and%t the age of seventy-one years, has survived not only 
her husband, but most of their children. 

Mr. Clay's speeches will ever be read with the deepest 
interest ; they open with the clearness and beauty of the 
morning and difluse, as they proceed, streams of advancing 
and spreading light, till the reader finds himself in a flood of 
dav In matter, they are sufficiently copious to furnish to 
*' 3 



34 

the reader of the next generation a thorough understanding 
of the whole subject. His facts are fairly and skilfully ar- 
ranged for truth and effect; and the structure of his sen- 
tences is easy and harmonious ; grand in volume, and swell- 
ing as it proceeds. His words are selected with care, and 
dispel all obscurity of idea. Understanding his subject most 
clearly himself, there is a light in his expression, not dazzling 
but clear, which leaves nothing dark — no thought half ex- 
pressed — no opinion in mystery. Argument is the forte of 
his composition — : the deep sincerity of his convictions, the 
lucid order of their connection, and the fervor of his patriot- 
ism, lie at the foundation of his eloquence. 

" Classic in its style, 
Not brilliant with explosive confiscations 
Of heterogeneous thoughts, at random caught, 
And scattered like a shower of shooting stars, 
That end in darkness; no, his noble mind 
"Was clear, and full, and stately, and serene, 
His earnest and undazzled eye he kept 
Fixed on the Sun of Truth." 

As an orator, he possessed a combination of many gifts 
which fall, altogether, to very few men. His tall and grace- 
ful form, which stood in repose while the heart was unagi- 
tated. was swayed by the deep emotions of his bosom, as a 
forest tree is rocked by the tempest. With a voice of illimi- 
table compass, distinct in every key, and musical in all its 
tones, he filled, without effort, the most spacious halls. 

His manner, too, was exceedingly fine, and the lineaments 
of his countenance, catching the contagion of his heart, 
grew eloquent as he spoke. 

With such advantages, added to a charm which none can 
describe, it is not wonderful that, for the last thirty years, 
Mr. Clay has been regarded as the most eloquent man in the 
Union. Without a book to hand down a word of his lan- 
guage, tradition would preserve the fame of his eloquence 
for centuries to come. 

Mr. Clay was decidedly a man of business — laborious, 
neat, methodical. As a statesman, he was profound, saga- 
cious, just, patriotic, national, and eminently practical. 

" In the radiant front superior shone 
The first paternal virtue, public zeal ; 
And threw o'er all an equal wide survey." 



35 

No man has arisen, no man can, at any time, arise by the 
force of his unaided exertions, from so humble an origin to a 
destiny so exalted as those which begun and finished the 
career of Mr. Clay, without possessing more than an ordi- 
nary share of the intensity of the passions of our species 
It is their confluence which constitutes energy — the stream 
of energy that bears us along with more or less impetu- 
osity, as the same may be found in the tributaries, or as it 
may be checked and controlled by judgment and education. 

Mr. Clay was a man of great warmth of temper, and, 
many times, was shown its "hasty spark;" and although 
early withdrawn from parental care, he placed it under the 
discipline of a judgment pre-eminently remarkable for its 
practical character. But his temper, though warm, was 
noble and generous, as is attested by his whole life. The 
wrongs which he sometimes inflicted in the heat of collisions, 
he repaired early, and with dignity and grace. Although both 
brave and firm in an eminent degree, his conduct was gov- 
erned by no rule of inflexibility, which was not approved by 
justice and kindness. In public' affairs, he was deterred from 
the performance of. his duty by no partiality for friends — by 
no resentment of his foes. His sense of duty was the only 
master he obeyed ;. and, in the service of that, he counted no 
perils to himself, but freely staked, for the welfare of his 
country, his reputation in the past, and his expectations in 
the future. It was this lofty sense of right, impelled by a 
disposition at once ardent and confident, that gave to his 
conduct, sometimes, the appearance of dictation. 

Mr. Clay carried no malice in his heart. He was too 
proud, and to » just to himself, to seek to appease the anger 
of those who had injured him ; but he was too true to his 
duty as a man, and the instincts of a noble nature, to pur- 
sue them for revenge. • 

Gratitude was a distinguishing trait in his character. The 
kindness of Gov. Brooke to him, in his indigence and or- 
phanage, was remembered with a lively recollection to the 
day of his death; and in ail the difficult scenes of his life, 
that venerable, pure-hearted, and intelligent gentleman, was 
his confidant and adviser. 

The men who knew him best, loved him most. His neigh- 
bors — his congressional district— the State of Kentucky, 
knew no bounds to their love and esteem for his character 
and fame. In a leeling manner, and in the most honorable 
place, he has left the eloquent record of her devotion and of 



36 

his gratitude. In his speech on retiring from the Senate, over- 
powered with emotion, he spoke thus, of his adopted State : 
'From the period that I set my foot on her generous soil, 
the highest honors of the State have been freelv bestowed 
on me ; and afterwards, in the darkest hour of calumny and 
detraction, when I seemed to be forsaken by all the rest of 
the world, she threw her broad and impenetrable shield 
around me, and, bearing me aloft in her courageous arms, 
repelled the poisonous shafts that were aimed at my destruc- 
tion, and vindicated my good name from every false and un- 
founded assault.'"' 

Happy, honorable State — land of the dark and bloody 
ground — fir^t born of the American confederacy — ever blest 
be thy name. Thou deservest to be the land of statesmen — - 
thou, who cried out to him, in the night of his troubles, J / 

"Though all the world betray thee, 
One voice at least thy fame shall guard, 
One faithful harp shall praise 'thee." 

It has been objected that Mr. Clay was ambitious. Am- 
bitious of what ? Of destroying the liberty or union of the 
States? He sacrificed his life to avert that awful disaster. 
Of what then ? Of occupying her highest post of honor ? 
Be it so. And how did he seek that high estate? By petty 
services and skulking policies? By the adulation of some, 
and the ruin of others? No, fellow-citizens! No! If that 
prize was the incentive of his deeds, never did an ambitious 
man suit to the noble end, nobler deeds. Never can man 
more dignify, in advance, the object of his ambitious toil. 
And never, if patriotism, unexampled great services rendered 
to the country, virtuous purposes and lofty intellect, can 
justly deserve the prize, — never, will it be more worthily de- 
served by any one of the thousand, who, I pray God, are yet 
destined to succeed, by free election, the patriot statesman 
who now sits at the helm of State. 

But, whatever may have been, at other times, his ambitious 
hopes, or the motives which inspired the illustrious actions 
of his other days, there is one period of his life sacred from 
the polluting breath of scandal and suspicion. It is fenced 
around as a shrine — the gift of Deity, — from which, by the 
permission of God, and in the sight of all his countrymen, he 
might take his apotheosis. 

Yes, fellow-citizens, a kind Providence reserved for him 



the last scene of his labors, to bear htm eternal testimony of 
the purity and patriotism of his whole public Irfe. That life ! — 
whose sun, so bright as it dawned on the nation, and rose to 
full view, yet destined, in the w;»ys of Wisdom unfathomable, 
to wade through storms and darkness, when most we looked 
for the mid-day blaze, has descended below the margin of 
the world. But, in the ways of the same Wisdom, the clouds 
were dispersed as it came down to the close of his day ; and, 
as the shadows were lifted from the pathway he had trod, 
honor and patriotism emerged to full view as the bright 
guides of the journey. Worse fate he might have had, as 
often before him has been the lot of the great benefactors of 
men. 

" Diram qui contudet hydram, 
Notaque fatali portenta labore subedit, 
Comperit invidiam supremo fine domari. 

* * * * Extinctus amabitur idem." 

That repentant tribute which a nation bestows with the 
" dull, cold marble," often not till after death, on her greatest 
and the best of her men, he was allowed to feel, though late, 
yet, in the warm bosom of life. 

It was the happy fortune of Henry Clay to outlive every 
blight on his honor, to die in the ripeness of years, and in 
the plenitude of his fame. 

Vindicated in his life by an ordeal of fire, he saw the pen 
of detraction broken into atoms. The noble character which 
he left, when he drew his last breath, will be his character 
for the age that is to come. All that he WAS he IS. 

The decline of his day was beautiful and calm, and he 
gave it up to God, to his friends, and his country. Gradually 
he sunk to his rest. Grain by grain, dropped away the sands 
of his life — so slowly and so gently, that he saw them all 
fall, but the last. As the soul took her flight, his afFections, 
purified for heaven, bore along the holiest memories of the 
heart, and the tender words of wife and mother were the 
last sounds that trembled on his lips. 



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